While perusing an old article I found lying around the house, "The Forgotten Eighth Wonder of the World," by Victor-Emmanuel Roberto Wilson, I realized I had to do a quick introductory post to the famous Citadel in the north of Haiti. Based on that article, here are some key points and interesting facts about this famous structure as well as other wondrous architectural pieces across Christophe's kingdom.
1. The Citadel lies 3000 feet atop Mount Bonnet-a-l'Eveque, an altitude where one can see for a distance of almost 50 km the entire valley, the city of Cap-Haitien, and the northwest shoreline as far as Monte-Christi and the border with the Dominican Republic. The strategic military importance is obvious then, since such a height would allow Haitians to defend themselves in the mountains while also having the advantage over French incursions since they could see them coming from miles away.
2. Construction of the Citadel began in 1804 under Dessalines. Christophe's reign as king of the northern part of Haiti led to a continued effort in completing the Citadel as well as other structures. The city of Cap-Haitien was rebuilt, the gourd established as currency, total exports from Haiti added up to more than 130 million pounds of various local goods between 1811-1820, and he ordered the construction of several castles and palaces. Reading about this era, it's no surprise Haitian folktales contain allusions to castles, kings, and other aspects of what must have been a fascinating period to live in.
3. Dessalines had a French architect who drew up the original plans, La Ferriere. When Christophe was crowned, he commissioned a Haitian architect, Henri Barre. The author of the article claims that all bricklayers and able-bodied men were recruited for the project. The amazing part about the construction of the Citadel is the lack of evidence for the use of ramps. But without ramps, how else would these estimated 200,000 workers have been able to carry tons of material and cannons to the top of a mountain on narrow paths? Without ramps how would the guns have been set in place? Much like the ancient pyramids of Egypt, how was this Citadel built? I am skeptical of claims for as many as 200,000 men working on this project, as well as the other claim that 20,000 died doing so, especially since Wilson does not provide citations for his figures. Regardless, thousands of workers were necessary to complete this wonder of the world, and undoubtedly some perished in the process.
5. Wilson's "educated guess" is that Christophe built 9 palaces and 15 castles. Sans Souci, built near Milot, is the most well-known. The palace included a fountain, classical style, a terrace, gardens nearby where tropical plants were grown, decorated rooms, paintings, tapestries, banquet and reception halls, marble statues, collection of rainwater for water reserves, and air conditioning.
6. In addition, Christophe had all the streets of the capital paved and built roads. Christophe's desire to rebuild Haiti and show the architectural genius and capability of descendants of Africans worked, although lacking the recognition and appreciation it deserves from the rest of the world.
"Dessalines had a French architect who drew up the original plans, La Ferriere". Who is he? I'd never heard of him before. " I am skeptical of claims for as many as 200,000 men working on this project, as well as the other claim that 20,000 died doing so, especially since Wilson does not provide citations for his figures" You should be, the total population of St-Domingue circa 1791 was 580,000-590,000, yet we are expected to believe that a decade and a half later 200,000 were available for work on a single project in one part of a divided Haiti after a war that killed a third of the original population. Where are the graves of the 20,000 dead? The person making that claim continues the long tradition of lying about Haiti. " Some historians, however, believe it was modelled after Frederick the Great's palace of the same name in Potsdam.But Frederick's palace symbolised the Enlightenment of the day, whereas its Haitian counterpart symbolised tyranny and megalomania. Henri Christophe was a brutal kleptocrat, pretty much like most of Haiti's rulers that came after him." This quote is from a BBC travel piece written by Bojan Kveder 17 April, 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17567230. Whom he stole from Kveder remains silent on. I'll bet you he would never have dared pen this nonsense about, say Leopold of Belgium who most richly deserved the name kleptocrat.
ReplyDeleteWow...it's amazing what passes for acceptable journalism or history in the press. I definitely couldn't take seriously the figures given by Wilson here...it sounds like he just made them up or got them from some white supremacist writer. I'm going to try to look up this La Ferriere guy one of these days. Never heard of him myself.
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